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Stories from
Tales from Brookgreen
More Tales
Lowcountry History
and Culture
About Tales from Brookgreen
Also . . .
Rachel Meets a Ghost (A Story from Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina)
Miss Genevieve , one of the Hostesses at Brookgreen Gardens in the 1950s, always liked to tell visitors about the famous American painter, Washington Allston, called "the American Titian" and “the first great American Romantic painter,” who was born at Brookgreen Plantation during the American Revolution. I much preferred her stories about his mother, Rachel Allston (later Flagg), whose long, dramatic, and often romantic life stirred my young imagination. I especially liked this "ghost" story set at Huntington Beach State Park, just across the highway from Brookgreen Gardens.
On the Beach at Huntington Beach State Park
Rain and wind increased steadily throughout the afternoon and evening along the South Carolina coast that fall day in the year 1778. Wealthy Waccamaw Neck rice planter William "Gentleman Billy" Allston and his young wife Rachel had been enjoying their summer on Allston Island (today called Huntington Beach) but when the weather began to worsen they grew apprehensive. A storm was coming. Horrible September storms sometimes devastated the Carolina coast. Should they flee inland or brave the gale?
Gentleman Billy and Rachel decided to remain at their house on the beach that night, and luck was with them. The next morning dawned bright and sunny, although debris carried ashore by the still crashing waves told of a shipwreck off the coast. Servants sent to search along the strand found one lone survivor among the disarray of wreckage. As they carried the exhausted man to the nearby Allston beach house, Rachel came out onto the front porch to meet the rescue party. Was the poor man badly injured? She bent over the battered figure gently, then cried out sharply and swooned to the floor!
Frightened servants rushed to revive their young mistress, as she was in a delicate condition. Gradually, as she regained her composure, an amazing story emerged.
Rachel's Early Life
Rachel had been born in the middle of the 1700s on a rice plantation a little north of Charleston, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Vander Horst Moore. They raised her to marry well and within her own social circle, like any other daughter of a wealthy rice planter. She learned to read, write, and understand the simple arithmetic needed to manage a plantation household. Most importantly however, she learned to dance prettily and speak of music and the arts during evenings spent entertaining other aristocratic rice planter families. Yet Rachel also developed a remarkably independent spirit, unusual for a woman living in those times when a lady was expected to make charming conversation and smile sweetly in submission to the wishes of first her father, and then her husband.
An Engagement
Rachel’s father carried on a successful mercantile business in
Charleston, in addition to managing his plantation, and kept a house
there. Every year he brought his family to town for the February social
season. It was there that Rachel became engaged to a wealthy and
socially prominent young man of Charleston’s French Huguenot Neufville
family when she was just sixteen years old. Both families blessed the
match. However, the wonderful and amazing thing about this engagement,
and something that was very unusual for those times, was that these two
young people were actually in love with each other! Yet both were still
young, and the marriage would take place only after Mr. Neufville
completed his education in Europe, as was the custom for aristocratic
young men of the Lowcountry.
Rachel always enjoyed the social festivities in Charleston, but her
pleasure in them increased with her engagement. The whirl of parties and
balls was exciting for the young couple, but the shadow of Mr.
Neufville’s upcoming departure tinged their happiness with worry. Life
was never certain in those times of sudden fevers and stormy seas.
Tragedy . . . and Marriage
At last the day came when they had to part. Mr. Neufville sailed for
Europe and Rachel returned to her family plantation. During the first
months of their separation Rachel and her fiancé corresponded regularly,
in letters perhaps filled with promises of undying love. Then his
letters ceased. Rachel was at first bewildered, and then became anxious.
At last came the feared reports of Mr. Neufville’s death in that far
away country.
Rachel’s mourning lasted for many months. Eventually new suitors began
to present themselves to the charming and wealthy young girl, but Rachel
could think of little but her lost love. She rejected all who proposed
to her. At first Rachel’s family was understanding, but then they became
impatient, and began pressing her to select one of these eligible young
men as her husband. Finally, when an extremely wealthy rice planter from
the Waccamaw Neck (that strip of land in South Carolina between the
Waccamaw River and the Atlantic Ocean) approached her, she bowed to
family pressure and accepted his proposal of marriage. In January 1776,
the year of the Declaration of Independence, Rachel married William
Allston.
Like most Waccamaw rice planters, "Gentleman Billy," as Mr. Allston was
called, owned a house in Charleston where he spent the January and
February social season. William Allston was a Southern gentleman, a
widower himself, with two young children, and he was one of the
wealthiest rice planters on the Waccamaw Neck. He owned Brookgreen
Plantation and Springfield Plantation immediately to the north of it,
both of which later became part of Brookgreen Gardens. Each had hundreds
of acres of rice lands and hundreds of slaves to raise the crops.
The Mistress of Brookgreen Plantation
Rachel and her new husband made their home at Brookgreen Plantation,
named for holdings of the Allston ancestors in England. Gentleman Billy
spent his days at Brookgreen directing the operations of his vast rice
plantations. Rachel managed the large household. Of course, when
friends, relatives, or dignitaries occasionally visited, Rachel would
have made a lively and charming hostess. During the first years of her
marriage Rachel developed into one of the most gracious hostesses on the
Waccamaw Neck.
Rachel and Gentleman Billy were happy together, although their
relationship was more respectful than passionate. Rachel mothered
William’s young children like her own. One wonders, however, how often
her thoughts might have strayed to Mr. Neufville, her first love.
Each year the Allston family spent the midwinter social season at their
house in Charleston, where Rachel had the opportunity to renew
friendships, visit with relatives, and rejoin the social whirl.
Gentleman Billy, no doubt, devoted a great deal of his time to both
political discussion and the horse racing crowd.
Each February, at the close of the Charleston social season, Rachel and
Gentleman Billy returned to Brookgreen Plantation where they remained
until the warming weather signaled the need to leave the rice lands for
a healthier location. Some planter families maintained homes in the cool
mountains. Gentleman Billy built a summer house high in the dunes toward
the northern end of their own beach just across the King’s Highway. It
was known then as Allston Island and later called Theaville, then
Magnolia Beach, but today is known as Huntington Beach.
In the late spring Rachel would supervise the move of her household from
the plantation mansion to their summer house, only a few miles away. At
the beach, life continued on as usual in the Allston household
throughout the summer and early fall, although in a slightly less formal
manner. The close distance allowed easy access to the main part of the
plantation and Gentleman Billy was able to ride over to the rice fields
often during the day to check on the progress of the crop and attend to
other business when necessary. He could still return to the beach to
escape the deadly "mal arias" that arose from the swamps every evening.
The sea breezes were wonderfully cooling, and while sea bathing was not
yet in vogue, long strolls along the strand provided delightful
entertainment, as did watching the never ceasing waves and the soaring,
diving shore birds. It was only in the fall that sea breezes turned into
worrisome gales,
hurricanes that sometimes devastated the coast.
A Ghost?
And now, there on Allston Island, today's Huntington Beach, one of these storms had brought Rachel
something unimaginable! Mr. Neufville lay at her feet. Was it a ghost? Had
her long lost
fiancé had returned from the dead? He had certainly come back to Rachel
. . . but too
late. She was now the Mistress of William Allston’s Brookgreen
Plantation, and was expecting his child.
History does not tell us anything further about the reunion of the two
former sweethearts or about what happened to Mr. Neufville after his
recovery. Presumably he returned to his life in Charleston. Perhaps he
married another planter’s daughter. After his dramatic return to
Huntington Beach in the Lowcountry Mr. Neufville passed out of our
story. Rachel’s adventures continued, however, adventures that included
both Lord Cornwallis and President Washington . . .
To read more of Rachel’s story . . .
Buy the complete
paperback version
(single copies or in bulk) of Lynn Michelsohn's
Tales from Brookgreen
Gardens, Folklore, Ghost Stories, and Gullah
Folktales in the South Carolina Lowcountry
also $9.99 on
Kindle
and available from other online booksellers, your local bookstore,
or on
NOOK.
These charming stories interweave ghostly legends, local reminiscences, and
Gullah folktales with factual information about the history, geography, and
people of the South Carolina Lowcountry around Brookgreen Gardens, near Myrtle
Beach . . . an entertaining and informative addition to your visit to this unique area.
Shorter selections from Tales from Brookgreen are also available as ebooks . . .
Crab Boy's Ghost and Other Gullah Folktales.
Just $0.99
Kindle
Lowcountry Ghosts
Stories of Alice Flagg, Confederate Blockade Runners, and Haunted Beads
$2.99 on
Kindle
Gullah Ghosts
Stories and Folktales from Brookgreen Gardens in the South Carolina Lowcountry
with Notes on Gullah Culture and History
$2.99 on
Kindle
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